APPLICATIONS

TeraGrid, the world's largest, most comprehensive distributed cyberinfrastructure for open scientific research, has named three new directors to manage different project areas, ensuring more effective user services. Each area director will continue working from his respective TeraGrid resource provider site, as these appointments are half-time. The three TeraGrid area directors are:

• Tim Cockerill, National Center for Supercomputing Applications -- TeraGrid Area Director for Project Management
• Daniel S. Katz, Louisiana State University – TeraGrid GIG Director of Science
• Amit Majumdar, San Diego Supercomputing Center – TeraGrid Area Director for Advanced User Support

“In the seven years since the National Science Foundation created TeraGrid, it has grown significantly, adding five new resource providers, welcoming more users and advancing computational science solutions for complex problems in all areas of academia,” said Ed Seidel, director of the National Science Foundation’s Office of Cyberinfrastructure. “As we continue growing, these new positions will help us better coordinate our efforts to serve research needs in the areas of overseeing TeraGrid project awards, understanding user needs and supporting our users.” As TeraGrid Project Management Director, Tim Cockerill of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications will lead integrated project management activities to collect and implement TeraGrid awards in a coordinated manner. The TeraGrid Project Management Working Group includes project managers from all of the TeraGrid partners/awardees and plans, who work together to track, report and manage changes for TeraGrid integrated projects. Cockerill was the original principal investigator for the National Science Foundation award that allowed National Center for Supercomputing Applications to join the TeraGrid as a resource provider, and he is currently a co-PI on that award. For the first two years of the TeraGrid, Cockerill held a half-time position as the TeraGrid GIG Project Manager. Daniel S. Katz of Louisiana State University will be Grid Infrastructure Group, or GIG, Director of Science for the TeraGrid. In this role, Katz will work with national science and engineering groups to understand their advanced computing requirements and to ensure TeraGrid is adequately serving the research and education communities. He also serves as TeraGrid’s liaison to the TeraGrid Science Advisory Board. Katz, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, has a diverse computational science background, including work in engineering, climate, geophysics, astronomy and scientific visualization. At Louisiana State University, Katz leads the Center for Computation & Technology’s Cyberinfrastructure Development division, which designs, develops and prototypes systems and software. He guides the division’s efforts to develop new computing technologies critical to many areas of research in academia, such as coastal modeling and astrophysics, and in industry, such as restoring the Gulf coast and petroleum engineering. Katz oversaw the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative’s integration into the TeraGrid as a resource provider earlier this year. Amit Majumdar of San Diego Supercomputing Center will be TeraGrid Director for Advanced User Support. He will work with TeraGrid users and staff from the various resource provider sites to ensure they can adequately access and utilize TeraGrid resources for scientific computing projects. Majumdar has been with San Diego Supercomputing Center for 11 years and has led the Scientific Computing Applications group since 2002. This group has expertise in high-performance computing and works on advanced scientific computing projects with national users. Majumdar has worked on various projects using computational science applications in physics, nuclear medicine and anthropology. He also has worked on scientific/parallel computing projects in electron microscopy, tomography and climate modeling with principal investigators from educational institutions around the country. Majumdar, who received a Ph.D in the interdisciplinary program of nuclear engineering and scientific computing from the University of Michigan, is principal investigator for two National Science Foundation Collaborative projects, PetaApps and HECURA. Cockerill, Katz and Majumdar all began their half-time appointments with TeraGrid in August, shortly after being named to these positions. For more information on the TeraGrid, please visit its Web site.